Faḵẖ̱ru-d-dīn Jūna, on his coins simply Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq,
son and murderer of G̱ẖ̱iyās̤u-d-dīn Tug̱ẖlaq, has not unjustly
been called by Thomas “The Prince of moneyers.” Not only do his coins
surpass those of his predecessors in execution and especially in
calligraphy,[53] but his large output of gold, the number of his issues
of all denominations, the interest of the inscriptions, reflecting
his character and activities, his experiments with the coinage,
particularly his forced currency, entitle him to a place among the
greatest moneyers of history. For his earliest gold and silver pieces
he retained the old 172·8 grain standard of his predecessors. His
first experiment was to add to these, in the first year of his reign,
gold _dīnars_ of 201·6 grains (Pl. VIII, 7) and silver _’adlīs_ of
144 grains weight, an innovation aimed apparently at adjusting the
coinage to the actual commercial value of the two metals, which had
changed with the influx of gold into Northern India after the Sultan’s
successful campaigns in the Deccan. But the experiment evidently did
not work; for after the seventh year of the reign these two new pieces
were discontinued.
[53] The fine calligraphy, however, caused the coin to be reduced in
size: all succeeding Sultans reproduced these small thick gold and
silver pieces, but not the fine script, with the unfortunate result
that the mint name which appears in the margin is frequently missing.
Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s gold and silver issues, like those of his
predecessors, are identical in type. One of the earliest and most
curious of these was struck both at Dehlī and Daulatābād (Deogīr), his
southern capital, in memory of his father. It bears the superscription
of G̱ẖ̱iyāṣu-d-dīn accompanied by the additional title, strange
considering the circumstances of his death, _Al Shahīd_, “The Martyr.”
His staunch orthodoxy is reflected on nearly all his coins, not only
in the reappearance of the Kalima, but in the assumption by the
monarch of such titles as “_The warrior in the cause of God_” and “_The
truster in the support of the Compassionate_,” while the names of the
four orthodox Khalifs, Abūbakr, ’Umr, ’Us̤mān and ’Alī now appear for
the first time on the coinage of India. The early gold and silver, of
which about half-a-dozen different types exist, were minted at Dehlī,
Lakhnautī, Satgāon, Sult̤ānpūr (Warangal), Dāru-l-islām, Tug̱ẖlaqpūr
(Tirhut), Daulatābād, and Mulk-i-Tilang. In A.H. 741 (1340) Muḥammad
sent an emissary to the Abbassid Khalif at Cairo for a diploma of
investiture, and in the meantime substituted the name of the Khalif
Al Mustakfī Billah for his own on the coinage; on the return of the
emissary, however, it was discovered that that Khalif had actually died
in A.H. 740, so during the latter years of the reign the name of his
successor, Al Ḥākim, appeared in its place (Pl. VIII, 8).
At least twenty-five varieties of Muḥammad bin Tug̱ẖlaq’s billon
coinage are known. From inscriptions on the Forced Currency, which
included tokens representing these billon pieces, we learn the names of
their various denominations. There appear to have been two scales of
division, one for use at Dehlī, and the other for Daulatābād and the
south. In the former the silver tankah was divided into forty-eight,
and in the latter into fifty _jaitils_. At Dehlī were current 2-, 6-,
8-, 12- and 16-_gānī_ pieces, equal respectively to ¹/₂₄, ⅛th, ⅙th, ¼th
and ⅓rd of a tankah. At Daulatābād there were halves (25 _gānī_) and
fifths (10 _gānī_). The assignation of their respective values to the
actual coins is, however, still a matter of difficulty.[54]
[54] I am indebted to Colonel H. R. Nevill and Mr. H. N. Wright for
this information.
Billon as well as pure copper coins of the later years of the reign
bear the names of the two Khalifs. About twelve types[55] of copper
money were minted, most of them small and without special interest.
Between the years A.H. 730-732 (1329-1332) the Sultan attempted to
substitute brass and copper tokens (Pl. VIII, 9) for the silver and
billon coinage. In order to secure the success of this experiment, he
caused such appeals as the following to be inscribed on them: “_He who
obeys the Sultan obeys the Compassionate_”; and it is significant that
one of these tokens bears an inscription in Nāgarī, the sole example of
the use of this script by the orthodox Sultan. These coins were struck
at seven different mints, including Dhār in Mālwā, but the scheme was
doomed because of the ease with which forgeries were fabricated; they
were made in thousands; the promulgation of the edict which accompanied
the issue “turned the house of every Hindu into a mint,” says a
contemporary historian. The Sultan thereupon withdrew the issue, and
redeemed genuine and false alike at his own cost.
[55] Excluding the Forced Currency types.